Skilled knowledge workers are valuable resources to any enterprise. When these skilled workers are paid a fixed salary, an enterprise is motivated to optimize worker productivity by ensuring that each worker can perform his tasks accurately and efficiently. By reducing the time that each knowledge worker spends on each assigned task, more tasks can be completed and the enterprise can be more efficient and cost effective.
Oftentimes, when a knowledge worker is assigned a task, he is generally required to make a decision, such as, for example:
Should this insurance claim be approved?
Should this loan be approved with these particular terms?
Does this case require additional investigation?
To make such a decision, the knowledge worker typically must refer to information that is not necessarily specific to a case. For example, in order to determine whether a loan should be approved in a certain region or industry, the worker can refer to an analysis of demographic information in the region, or a report indicating trends in the particular industry related to the loan. Utilizing such information helps the knowledge worker make better decisions that ultimately benefit the enterprise and/or the customers.
The information required to make these decisions, however, is not always obvious to the worker and, in many cases, is not explicitly included in the task. As a result, the knowledge worker can spend considerable time identifying and searching for the needed information or may fail to find it altogether.